Victory over biopiracy

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The European Patent Office (EPO) last week revoked a controversial patent on a fungicide derived from seeds of the Indian Neem tree, in what public interest groups are calling a major victory over 'biopiracy'.

The patent, which had been granted to the to the US Department of Agriculture and multinational corporation W.R. Grace, was first opposed five years ago by a coalition of public interest groups co-ordinated by a member of the European Greens, on the grounds that the Neem fungicide had been used traditionally for decades.

W.R. Grace asserted that its methods for developing Neem based products were amenable to patenting as they were novel, non-obvious and based on extraction methods that constituted an innovative technique.

However, the EPO panel ruled the patent lacked invention and novelty. According to the journal Nature the panel accepted the opponent's argument because a Puna-based company Ajay Bio-Tech had been producing Neem-based fungicide since the early 1980s.

According to coalition member IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements), however, the panel did not find in favour of the opponents' charge that the patent constituted a violation of "public order and morality" or that it constituted a de facto monopoly on a single plant variety.

"This time we won the case on their terms,"observed IFOAM President Linda Bullard, "the next step is to defeat biopiracy on our terms. For that we need to change the patent system itself so that this kind of theft is no longer possible."

The Neem whose scientific name Azadirachta indica means "Free Tree", is a member of the mahogany family. It is indigenous to India where it has been used in agriculture, medicine and cosmetics for centuries. It is said to be pesticidal, antiviral and to cure jaundice and hepatitis. According to Nature, 90 patents exploiting the tree have been granted worldwide.

During the panel's deliberations, a delegation of scientists and farmers from India and Sri Lanka outside the EPO office symbolically freed a 2-metre tall Neem tree from patents for public use. They also presented to a representative of the EPO packages of signatures of 500,000 Indian citizens demanding that all patents on the Neem be revoked.

According to Nature, Indian science minister Murli Manohar Joshi welcomed the patent revocation but said further moves were required for future protection against 'biopiracy'. India has announced plans to create a digital database of its traditional knowledge to be included in the patent classification system of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization.